Midland Highway 10 Year Action Plan

About the program

We are improving road safety and decreasing driver frustration by providing a safer road with more overtaking opportunities.

The safety upgrade includes the installation of a flexible safety barrier to reduce the number of head on crashes and will include road widening, extending sealed shoulders and building additional overtaking lanes. We continue to deliver this important project.

Learn more about our 10 Year Action Plan here.

Project update: April 2024

The following projects were completed in early 2024

Campbell Town South – from Ross to Campbell Town
Oatlands – from Jericho to Oatlands

One project remains to be completed:

Section A of the Campbell Town North project is close to completion, with 6km of the original 10km completed and open to traffic. The remaining 4km is which are planned for completion in autumn 2024.

Section B of the Campbell Town North project is yet to be tendered and delivered.

Completed projects

Current projects

The program so far

This transformative $565 million plan started construction in 2015, with the goal of improving road safety and minimising the number of crashes on this important route between Hobart and Launceston.

We are on track to complete the Midland Highway 10 Year Action Plan on time in 2025.

In 2014 the Australian Road Assessment Program assessed the safety of the highway before upgrades, with one star being the least safe and five stars the safest. In this assessment 86% of the Midland Highway was marked with 1- or 2-stars.

The Midland Highway Action Plan is providing significant upgrades to provide a consistent minimum 3-star rating along the route.

Of the 153 km highway included in the plan, we have upgraded approximately 123 km, with a further 30 km to go.

Work is underway on the final three projects in Oatlands, Ross and North of Campbell Town.

built dual carriageways between Launceston and Perth
provided new and safer overtaking opportunities to decrease driver frustration and reduce the
potential for head-on crashes from unsafe overtaking
installed 198 km of roadside barriers, reducing the risk of run-off-road crashes
135 km of centre median barriers, reducing the risk of head-on crashes
widened the highway and the median between the lanes
upgraded junctions by providing better turning facilities
improved accesses to properties
sealed road shoulders
straightened sections of the highway
installed audible edge lines.

When it’s all finished, we will have a safer and more efficient highway, with:

50% three-lane carriageway
15% four-lane carriageway
35% two-lane carriageway

Dual carriageways are provided at locations where traffic volumes are higher - generally near Launceston and Hobart.

About 20,000 vehicles a day travel the highway into Launceston and about 10,000 through Brighton. This drops to 4,500 to 5,000 vehicles a day between Kempton and Campbell Town and 7,500 between Campbell Town and Perth.

By comparison, the Southern Outlet carries about 40,000 vehicles a day between Tolmans Hill and Kingston, the Huon Highway at Grove averages 10,000 vehicles a day and the Tasman Highway averages 40,000 cars a day at Mornington and over 24,000 at Cambridge.

The Action Plan has delivered four-lane carriageways at Perth. The provision of a four-lane highway elsewhere will remain a long-term goal which will be achieved by upgrading in a staged process as traffic volumes increase.